


Brighter Than Black

by knittyknicker



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: 5and1, Gen, Self Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-19
Updated: 2012-06-19
Packaged: 2017-11-08 02:50:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/438317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knittyknicker/pseuds/knittyknicker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Clint was painfully aware that he was the 'dumbest' in the group and one time his brains saved the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brighter Than Black

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt from Avengerkink
> 
> THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR THE YA BOOK THE GIVER. I'm so sorry! Part 4 if you want to avoid it.

1

“Did that really just happen?” Clint’s voice is incredulous as the Avengers stand, staring at the destruction before them. 

“Yeah, it really did. Somehow, I feel like this part got left out of _Mythology_. Huh.” Tony cocks his head, trying to make sense of the scene. 

“Well, yeah, but it isn’t like Edith Hamilton had a direct line to a norse deity like we do.”

The others all laughed at Bruce’s words, but Clint wasn’t sure who they were talking about and what it had to do with Thor’s ability to wield a weapon that had just reduced an entire block of office buildings into sand and gravel. 

Just as Clint opens his mouth to ask, Tony cuts in. “Could you imagine the size of that textbook if it were corrected? Epic.”

That statement explains why he didn’t get the reference. Well, nevermind then. 

 

2

“And then your people constructed a glorious city and named it Rome, although Tony assures me he could have built finer.”

Clint snorts. “Yeah, probably, but Rome was pretty high tech for its time.”

“In what ways? Tony spoke mostly of the feasting and women and sports.”

Damn. Clint thinks quickly, flipping through the little he knew about Roman history. 

“Um, they had aqueducts?” he offers weakly, hoping that Thor will just let it go. 

“That sounds intriguing. Explain.”

“They were like channels that carried water. Like sewers but not. I guess.”

“How did they transport the water? Did they use electricity? Or motors?” 

“Uh, I’m not totally sure. I think gravity or something? Tony’d know more. Go find him.”

As Thor takes off, Clint heaves a sigh of relief. One more day that he doesn’t have to acknowledge how far behind everyone else he is. 

One more day.

3

“Do me a favor and pass me that packet of papers?”

Clint looks over the cluttered table. There’s easily a tree or two laying spread over the surface and Clint rolls his eyes at Steve’s insistence on hard copies. 

“You could keep all this stuff on your Starkpad. Then you wouldn't have to move at all.”

“I know, but I like the feel of it better.”

“Whatever. You’re making the environment cry.”

“Clint. Packet.”

“Which packet?”

“The one with the histogram of our impact on projected travel time for commuters.”

Clint freezes, hand hovering above the sheets of paper. Histo-what now? All right, don’t panic, think it through. Most likely a graph or something, maybe this one? Bars in several colors spike up, but the information looks wrong. Sliding it to the side, he grabs another. Nope, pie chart. Spreadsheet, requisition form, requisition form, damage report, evaluation, newspaper clipping. Nothing that sticks out as what Steve is looking for. 

Shrugging, Clint gathers up an armful of papers, shuffling them together and dropping them on the couch beside Steve before making a beeline from the room.

“But that’s not-”

Clint doesn’t slow, letting the closing door cut of Steve’s words. He needs to get away, needs the safety of his range and the knowledge that he is good at something.

Anything. 

4

“Oh, is that _The Giver_?”

Clint tucks the slender ruler he had been using to guide his eyes reading out of sight.

“Yeah. Um, Tony’s in his workshop.” Cint hopes Pepper will go away quickly so he can finally read the last two chapters. It had taken him the better part of a month to make it as far as he had and he wanted to see how it ended.

“Don’t you just love the scene at the end when Jonah and Gabriel are flying down the hill? I thought that the author’s choice to leave it there was really brave. Of course, when I read it in middle school, I was totally crushed, but the ending grows on you, right?”

Clint’s fingers tense against the pages, crumpling the paper beneath them. All that time trying to finish something. He should have known. What a freaking waste. 

Clint forces himself to speak. “You were looking for Tony?” 

Pepper laughs, high and bright, oblivious to Clint’s dismay. “Right, nose to the grindstone. See you later, and enjoy your re-read.”

“Yeah, sure.”

As soon as he’s sure she’s gone, he closes the book, dropping it to the floor and stepping over it. He should have known this would happen. 

Figures. 

5

Natasha grabs Clint’s arm as he passes by, towing him to a table where a microscope sits waiting. Pointing to the eye piece, Natasha launches into speech.

“Take a look at the slide. See how the compound is acting as a desiccant on the cytoplasm and interfering with the cells ability to maintain homeostasis? SHIELD seems to think it might be useful as a poison, but Bruce thinks it would just be a really long, really painful way to go. You think you’d be comfortable using something like this on a mark?”

Clint’s brain is still tripping over what it is he’s supposed to be looking at, and he hums when Natasha asks his opinion, stalling for more time. Twiddling the knobs, he watches the image slide in and out of focus. There’s a bunch of tiny blobs inside of a large blob ad none of it looks in any way familiar. He thinks the thing in the middle might be the nucleus, but he isn’t really sure at all. before he speaks. 

“I don’t know, if Bruce thinks it’s a bad idea, I don’t think it’d be a good idea to proceed. I mean, we’re assassins, but we don’t have to be cruel about it, right?”

For just a second, Clint thinks he’s managed to slide by as Natasha’s gaze slides back to the tray in front of her. 

“If you aren’t sure where to look, I can put it up on the screen and show you.”

Her voice is level, but Clint swears he can hear a note of pity.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll go along with whatever you and Bruce want. You two know what you’re talking about. Gotta go. Sparring with Thor.”

He turns away, but stops when he feels Natasha’s hand wrap over his elbow. 

“I didn’t mean-”

Clint cuts her off, desperate not to have this discussion. “It’s fine, Nat. I’m _fine._ ” The emphasis on the second ‘fine’ is subtle, but Natasha hears it anyway. 

“Alright. You’re fine. Go”

So he does. 

+1

The computer system that kept the plant from overheating had been hit by a virus that mutated the programing into a jumble of letters and symbols, hiding the original code and sending the entire plant careening toward meltdown. For three days, the programmers at SHIELD, along with Tony and Bruce had been hard at work, trying to sort the good from the bad. 

Clint, Natasha, Thor and Steve had been relegated to coffee runs and support since there was no actual villain to fight. As Clint carried in his seventh coffee order of the day, he glanced at the monitor where Tony sat, staring blearily at the green font scrolling up a black screen. 

“Did you notice how the pattern repeats every line and a third? Wonder if it means anything?”

Tony’s head snapped up at Clint’s words, and had it not been for his reflexes, Clint likely would have been nursing a couple of black eyes.

“Repeat that.”

Clint stared, still cradling the half empty coffee tray against his chest. “What?”

“Repeat that. What about a pattern?” 

“Yeah. Every line and a third is a pattern of symbols. The lines are made up of different symbols each time, but the pattern is the same. See? Consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant, consonant, vowel, vowel, consonant, vowel, vowel.”

“Oh my god, you’re a genius.” Tony shoved back from the desk, snapping orders at the others in the room before grabbing a Starkpad and scribbling across its screen. 

“Upload the patch, it’ll halt the cascade. Clint did it, he figured out the fix.” 

Everyone else poured into the room, watching the monitors as the status bar crept toward completion. As the final pixel loaded and the image shifted to display the finished icon, the room exploded in cheers as the gauges began to creep away from the red and return to the green.

Clapping a hand on his shoulder, Steve offered his thanks as the others nodded at him. 

“Thank god you took a look. We were so close to running out of time. If this place had gone hot, we would have lost a good chunk of the east coast.” 

“I didn’t really do anything, it just jumped out at me.”

“Whatever. It worked.”

Clint smiled at the rest of his team.

“Yeah, it did.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't generally struggle with things like this, so I have to offer serious thanks to my friend, who does and maintains a 3.7 anyway. Thanks for cheerleading and handholding and helping me see that not everyone's brain runs at thesame speed as mine. For Lana.
> 
> Also, the Giver thing? Right out of last semester. Lesson learned? NEVER assume.


End file.
